Oct. 1 Dusty Baker postgame interview

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Dusty Baker.

Q. What was going with Cueto early in the game?

DUSTY BAKER:  Well, he had good stuff. He was getting it up. You know, all the balls they hit were up, over the heart of the plate.

You know, he only threw a couple really good sliders tonight. I don't know. I mean, all night, for the last week, we've been throwing the ball down the heart of the plate. You got to keep it out of the plate.

They out‑pitched us and they out‑hit us. Usually that's something that we do.

Q. With all your club has accomplished this week, how difficult is this?

DUSTY BAKER:  It's very difficult because it's like, I don't know, unbelievable actually. Our club has been through a lot of things on and off the field. Our club has stuck together. We realize I guess now we still got some more work to go. We got some improvements, you know, to make.

I don't know, it's very difficult to come down to one game, especially the way we played. We got out‑played big‑time.

Q. With the five losses in a row, including three to the Pirates, huge home crowd, do you think they just were not mentally prepared for this game?

DUSTY BAKER: No, we were mentally prepared. I don't care how mentally prepared you are, they got every hit imaginable. They got check swings. They got infield hits. Got nothing to do with mentally prepared. It's a different ballgame if Frazier's ball stays fair. That's a totally different ballgame.

No, it has nothing to do with my club not being mentally prepared. I know it's easy to say, but that wasn't the case.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about in the fourth inning when Francisco got out of a jam, can you talk about what it meant for the Pirates to be able to get out of that?

DUSTY BAKER: That's a good question. That meant a lot to them. That was a big time in the game when we could have made some hay on the score.

I mean, the guy pitched an excellent game. Just seemed like the last week everybody's pitching good games against us.

He has a lot of weapons that he can get you out with. Like I said, that was a good question. We were threatening at that time and came away with nothing.

Q. You pretty much answered already, you said it would come down to pitching. Liriano did the job.

DUSTY BAKER:  That's what it always comes down to. It comes down to pitching. We gave away a couple runs on defense with a potential double play twice. Both times those runs came across to score. If you're not scoring runs, you can't give away runs on defense.

It's just not what we do.

Q. In the second inning in between the home runs, the crowd here started chanting Cueto's name. How do you think that impacted him?

DUSTY BAKER:  I don't think that impacted him. He couldn't get the ball where he wanted. Usually he can throw that ball through the eye of a needle. Tonight he was up.

If you've ever been to winter ball, I mean, that was quiet compared to the Dominican where he's from.

I don't think it impacted him at all. If anything, it inspired them. I don't think it really impacted him.

Q. Watching the Pirates the last four days, they say the hottest teams wins. Do you feel they're hitting their stride right now?

DUSTY BAKER: They've got a lot going for them. Their pitching. It was a huge addition that hurt us a lot in Marlon Byrd. That was a late‑season acquisition. I think he got four or five RBIs the other day, hit one out today, enough to get them on the board, give them the momentum and get the fans in it.

We had hoped to take them out of it by scoring first. When they scored first, then the place erupted, and Russell Martin, he hit two home runs. He did the same thing in our park, hit the ball out of the ballpark.

If you make mistakes on these guys right now, they're not missing the mistakes.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.